Your Right to Know

COLUMBUS — The television-ad war being waged statewide over state Issue 2 appears to be lopsided in favor of the union-backed group seeking to defeat the collective-bargaining reforms aimed at more than 350,000 public workers.

We Are Ohio, the anti-Senate Bill 5 group, appears to be outspending Building a Better Ohio, a business and Republican-backed group, by a 5-to-2 ratio, according to files kept by 17 television stations across the state.

Including advance purchases through Oct. 13, We Are Ohio has plunked down $1.92 million for TV spots in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton and Youngstown, while Building a Better Ohio, the group supporting Senate Bill 5, has spent $741,000.

Make Ohio Great, which is funded by the Republican Governors Association, bought $441,000 in those same media markets to run ads featuring Gov. John Kasich advocating “reasonable reforms” without specifically campaigning for Issue 2.

The numbers were compiled by a consortium of newspapers that comprises the
Dayton Daily News,
The Plain Dealer,
The Columbus Dispatch,
The Cincinnati Enquirer and
The Vindicator in Youngstown. They do not include the Akron and Toledo markets and give only a partial read on the Columbus and Cleveland markets.

We Are Ohio said its tracking of TV-ad buys in all of Ohio’s media markets shows a total of $9.4 million spent: $5.4 million by We Are Ohio, $2.8 million by Building a Better Ohio, and $1.2 million by Make Ohio Great.

“We are spending a significant amount of money on the airwaves,” said We Are Ohio spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas. She added, “But we do think we’ll be outspent at the end of the day.”

Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, said, “It is a policy that we do not discuss our ad strategy, so I really can’t comment on the extent of our statewide buy.” He also said he expects that his side will be outspent.

A referendum on Senate Bill 5 will appear on the statewide ballot as Issue 2. A “no” vote is to reject the collective-bargaining reforms; a “yes” vote is to keep the changes.

Senate Bill 5 would: outlaw strikes by public employees; institute a merit-pay system; allow management to impose its last offer on a three-year contract if the two sides reach an impasse in negotiations; require workers to pay at least 15 percent of their health-care premiums and 10 percent of their wages toward their pensions; mandate that seniority no longer be the sole factor in determining who gets laid off; and prohibit bargaining on issues such as grievances, promotions and minimum-staffing rules.

Television stations are required to publicly disclose advertising buys for candidate campaigns but not for issue campaigns. As a result, four stations opted not to reveal the buys, while 17 voluntarily disclosed data to reporters.

Although We Are Ohio has spent more, state Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said he expects that a great deal of corporate money will flow in to pay for a last-ditch push by Building a Better Ohio in this campaign.

Federal election law allows 501(c)4 groups to collect unlimited, undisclosed donations as long as a majority is spent on their primary mission and not on electioneering. Issue campaigns are considered voter education, while candidate campaigns are categorized as electioneering. As a result, groups that want to spend heavily on candidates in the 2012 elections have an incentive to jack up their spending on issue campaigns, such as Senate Bill 5, to keep their electioneering spending below half of their overall spending, Fazekas said.

Alliance for America’s Future, a GOP-linked group based in Virginia, is funding a pro-Issue 2 mailing campaign to Ohio voters, according to news reports. The organization is run by Barry Bennett, a former top aide to U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland. Disclosure of its spending on Issue 2 is not required, Redfern said.

Campaign-finance reports are due on Oct. 27. Building a Better Ohio was not required to file a campaign-finance report earlier this year, but We Are Ohio’s report in July showed that the group had raised $6.94 million, largely from labor unions.